Honduran Superclasico in chaos

Update: On November 25 Marathon overcame the internal turmoil noted below and captured the Honduran Apertura with a 2-0 second leg victory at home over Olimpia, fighting back from a 1-0 deficit away in the first leg on Sunday.

The championship final of the Honduran National Football League slated for this Sunday has been thrown into chaos (Spanish link) after players from one of the participating clubs staged a training ground insurrection on Thursday to protest unpaid wages.

The two-legged final to determine the champion of the Apertura (the first half of the season that runs through autumn) pits the country’s two most prestigious clubs – C.D. Marathon and Sporting Club Olimpia – against each other. The two teams represent the country’s two largest cities: Marathon from San Pedro Sula and Olimpia from Tegucigalpa.

The Marathon players reportedly refused to train at the last minute on Thursday, leaving their manager at a loss to explain the situation to a room full of reporters. The walkout apparently protests unpaid wages related to qualification for the knockout stages of the Concacaf Champions League.

The striking Marathon players include three from the Honduran national side who had just flown in from a friendly against Peru in Miami – Jerry Palacios, Pery Martínez and Erick Norales.

The Marathon owner rushed to the training ground with two bodyguards to try and defuse the situation. During a heated closed door meeting – according to the above newspaper article – he told the players they could go f**k themselves for disrespecting the club on such an important occasion, at which point the squad walked out and went home.

I’m not sure why you’d give a shit about any of this if you weren’t Honduran, but I’m tired of the Hand of Gaul and depressing Canada friendlies. And at the end of the day it’s just kind of amusing.